Richard wrote:jogrebe: I can see how people would be very easily turned off by the pu erh. I liked it, and I can also see it being an acquired taste. I think it's a little too strong for me to have a cup of today--I've got a little headache--so I'm going to stay with some more traditional teas. Maybe I'll find a nice herbal tea that'll be good for my head.

Richard wrote:jogrebe: I can see how people would be very easily turned off by the pu erh. I liked it, and I can also see it being an acquired taste. I think it's a little too strong for me to have a cup of today--I've got a little headache--so I'm going to stay with some more traditional teas. Maybe I'll find a nice herbal tea that'll be good for my head.

Perhaps some chamomile, peppermint or spearmint might help?

Seriously, I'd recommend trying a different puerh from somewhere else before writing puerh off for good, as once I started trying other puerhs I found Adagio's to be my least favorite of them all. Also if the puerh you tried smelled at all musty (like the last bag I bought from Adagio) let it sit out in the open for a few days to air out till it loses its musty smell and then try again, as that will make it a lot better. Beyond this I am happy to assure you that for every other type of tea that I had for which Adagio also stocks the Adagio one was better.

Richard wrote:I can see how people would be very easily turned off by the pu erh. I liked it, and I can also see it being an acquired taste.

Me, too! I love cup-of-dirt tea!

Richard wrote:I can't say I've never trashed philosophy, but it's mainly when I've had a lot of confusing reading. Derrida and Lacan, I must say, have never gotten a good word out of my mouth. We're reading The Purloined Poe right now (a collection of essays all about The Purloined Letter, all of which base from Derrida's reading of Lacan's reading of the story) and it's destroying me. That's what my presentation is on--one of the essays. I reread it last night and made notes, and we mainly just have to summarize and talk about the article, so it's nothing too heavy.

Don't trash philosophy. Trash the philosophers! Especially the modern ones.

Seriously, some of those guys are completely off their rockers. The fact that they're even still published today is a constant source of amazement for me.

And don't even get me started on Descarte! He had one good idea in his entire career. And, while it was a really awesome idea, it still doesn't make up for the huge pile of refuse that he left behind.

The idea?

"I think, therefore I exist."

Not "I am," but "I exist." Subtle distinction, I know, but he was very specific for a reason. Truly a profound idea. Might seem obvious now but, at a time when people were questioning the existence of everything, it was positively groundbreaking.

Can you tell I'm a philosophy major?

jogrebe wrote:Seriously, I'd recommend trying a different puerh from somewhere else before writing puerh off for good, as once I started trying other puerhs I found Adagio's to be my least favorite of them all. Also if the puerh you tried smelled at all musty (like the last bag I bought from Adagio) let it sit out in the open for a few days to air out till it loses its musty smell and then try again, as that will make it a lot better. Beyond this I am happy to assure you that for every other type of tea that I had for which Adagio also stocks the Adagio one was better.

Richard wrote:What I dislike about being a master's student is all the Theory that you have to read, but I do enjoy some of it--mainly Sedgwick and Cixous. We're reading Lacan right now and I quite honestly don't understand a single word of it. And I'm doing a presentation on an article tomorrow that makes no sense to me and I have no idea how I'm going to do it!

Oh my goodness, I am all about the theory! Foucault, Derrida, and Lacan are my three favorites ...

I'm going to try Adagio's pu erh again, now that I know what I'm in for. As I said, I can see it being something I could get used to, I've just got to do the necessary work.

As for Descartes...we read the generic one that tells how he came up with cogito ergo sum (is that Meditations on First Philosophy or am I thinking of something different?). It was a couple years ago so possibly I wasn't ready for it...but I do remember disliking it greatly. if I remember correctly he devoted a lot of time to letting us know just much smarter he is than every subject he'd ever been taught. I just don't think he seems like a nice guy to hang out with. Um. Especailly because he's been dead for a long time.

Richard wrote:As for Descartes...we read the generic one that tells how he came up with cogito ergo sum (is that Meditations on First Philosophy or am I thinking of something different?). It was a couple years ago so possibly I wasn't ready for it...but I do remember disliking it greatly. if I remember correctly he devoted a lot of time to letting us know just much smarter he is than every subject he'd ever been taught. I just don't think he seems like a nice guy to hang out with. Um. Especailly because he's been dead for a long time.

First of all: ew. Just... ew. You are a sick man, Richard.

Cogito ergo sum is in the Meditations on First Philosophy, in the second meditation.

I know what you mean about him being pompous. I've often wondered whether he really was that pompous, or if he was just trying to show off his qualifications as a way of getting his work accepted. Fortunately, to the best of my memory, most of the pompousness is in the introduction (or three introductions, as the case may be). So it is pretty easy to skim/skip.

I just didn't feel like he used sound logic from the third meditation on. It was like... I was following him through the first two, and agreeing, and then I got to the third meditation and it was like he had fallen off the train, hit his head, and started spouting goblety-gook.

Hats off to you, except I own no hats. I'm sure that you will be a good addition to this site as it takes a distinct type of person to decipher the babbles of the common tea addict. And from what I've seen (or rather read) you fit the bill, I'll let you interpret that as you wish. Alright, now I'm off to skip the ten feet into the kitchen for my Mandarin Green fix.

We actually spent quite a bit of time on philosophy in my European History class, of all places, and I quite enjoyed reading Locke and Rousseau. I simply adored Rousseau's Discourse on the Origins of Inequality. I think my Literature and Composition teacher was quite surprised (we were reading Frankenstein at the time) to recieve a four page essay (the assignment was two) on the philosophy behind Frankenstein and how it (at least in my opinion) illustrated the points of Rousseau's Discourse on the Origins of Inequality and Locke's theory of tabula rasa.

Nerd that I am, I have to say that writing that essay was one of the greatest thrills I've ever had in my life. Ah, the exhiliration of writing something that I so much enjoyed - I still read over that essay from time to time and remember how it was one of the most enjoyable times in my education.

Also, much welcome-ness to the Richard! You have already made a wonderful entry to TeaChat, and I definately look forward to more enlightening online conversation!